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INTEREST: 20 Most Popular Anime/Game Names to Give Children


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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:14 am Reply with quote
hmm, except for Cloud, I don't find any name on that list surprising or that strange, even if some are uncommon (I have never heard of a guy named Sora)... and they would be less peculiar to those not familiar with anime anyways.

People have all sorts of "strange" names that don't sound so strange once you're familiar with them ... like Uma Thurman, and Frank Zappa's kids: Dweezil, Ahmet, Diva. and Moon Unit. I mean "Dweezil" doesn't sound strange anymore. Then there are Tiger, Venus, and familiar objects used as names..

But even Cloud wouldn't sound so strange IMO actually. Many Asian people, although rarely for Japanese and Korean, have non-native or Western names officially as their first names or adopted as their "official" nicknames.
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DarkCyradis



Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 78
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:14 am Reply with quote
Ooh, pretty cool names. I like "Shiki" for a girl--sounds so bad@ss~~

I would've though "Miku" would be on the list, both because of how popular vocaloid seems to be, and because it sounds super-hip and cute. (also, the kanji you could use for Miku could be the same as for "Mirai" (future) in an alternate pronunciation--that's friggin' cool).

Just glad to hear no one's naming their kid "Light"... 0__0 Not just the bad omens of megalomania, but the poor kid would get teased to death (at least in America...).

I think I would name my kids Akira and Hikaru (Hikaru no Go), regardless of gender. "Akira" is a traditional boys' name in Japan, but I think it's kinda cool and punky on a girl. Very Happy Also, it'd sound pretty in English on a girl, I guess. "Hikaru" goes either way anyway~
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firedragon54738



Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 3113
Location: wisconsin
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:17 am Reply with quote
Yui better Mio that some how not right
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InnocentSorrow59



Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 156
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:54 am Reply with quote
Thunderbird- wrote:
What is it with people naming their kids Yuri. Don't they know what that means, or does it secretly mean something else as well.


Wow... FAIL. How would they NOT know what it means? Really...

Actually "Yuri" means lily but in this case it's a Russian name.
Yuri from Tales of Vesperia (a game for the Xbox 360 that was made into a movie and then released on the PS3) is male and his name is of Russian roots, in which "Yuri" is a boys name.
It's like the Russian version of George (or something like that...) and it means farmer (or so the Internet tells me...).
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yamiangie



Joined: 03 Mar 2010
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 12:53 pm Reply with quote
Myaow wrote:
My firstborn shall be christened Captain Harlock. srsly.

on the subject of leiji matsumoto names I think Yuki would be a good name for a girl.
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lkmjr



Joined: 21 Jun 2008
Posts: 68
Location: Austin, Texas
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:38 pm Reply with quote
Living in Austin, Texas, which may as well be the hippie capital of the world, I'm used to some pretty bizarre names. I know a Tuesday, a Friday (they aren't related), sisters named Grace and Hope, a Appol (short for Appolonia), an Ysa, a Kaya, a Zephyr... Here it's weirder to run into a Jane or Molly than it is a Leaf or Sky or Tree.

I kind of like the name Hotaru myself. Not after any particular character (though Sailor Moon does come to mind), but because I adore fireflies.
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Dessa



Joined: 14 Jul 2004
Posts: 4438
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:52 pm Reply with quote
Kinda confused why most of the more "common" names are listed as "[anime], and others" but Sakura is listed as just "Cardcaptor Sakura". It's used in a lot more than just that. Heck, arguably, it's more well known (in the west, at least) for being from Naruto. "Name a series with a character named Sakura" was one of the questions for my Family Feud-styled game I ran at Sakura-Con, and there were 13 different series given as responses to the survey (CCS had 36, Naruto had 30, the others were 5 or less).


For me, I would name twin boys Luke and Asch. Because while I would know what they mean, they're also "normal" enough not to raise any eyebrows.
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:09 pm Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:

That said, I love that half of the respondents basically said that this question was nuts. I think that's probably right; most people don't (at least consciously) pick a name based off a character in any medium.


I wish that were true, because the world would have been spared the deluge of "Bella"s and "Edward"s that is occurring even as we speak ._. Well, not that those are really BAD names. But everyone knows where they came from ~_~ I do have to sigh at the fact that "Cullen" is a really popular baby name, though.

I would probably name my kids things like Gershwin or Sagacious or Candle, so it's probably for the best that I don't actually intend to have kids.
Having said that, though, I DO hail from Austin, so perhaps with lkmjr's assessment of the city, my kids would fit right in xD
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 7430
Location: Maine
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:49 pm Reply with quote
ac195 wrote:
PetrifiedJello wrote:
Any male introducing himself as "Cloud" had better be carrying a ridiculously large sword so people get the message laughing at the name has consequences.


Really, how is Cloud any worse than Moonbeam or Rain? If I met a "Cloud" my first guess would be that he was unfortunate enough to have a couple of hippie parents.


You're right, it is no worse, those are all horrible boy names! Razz Girls have it easy, they get an unusual name and it's cool and unique, but if a boy gets an unusual name they get beat up on the playground.

I'm actually really surprised to not see "Akira" make the list, it's such a popular name for both boys and girls in the "real world" and in anime/games. Maybe it was too obvious for people to choose.

I don't know why people are making such a big deal out of the name Yuri when we've got someone as prominent as Yuri Lowenthal working in the English side of the industry.

Emerje
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ultimafullmetal



Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Posts: 70
Location: Fredericksburg, Ohio
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:02 pm Reply with quote
The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin, and I've heard it used in quite a few other places as well.

The strangest name I have ever come up with was Nepagorgalax (for a horse in D&D).
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reanimator





PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:17 pm Reply with quote
I feel sorry for the future Japanese kids with Otaku parents. On second thought, how many otakus will have children of their own?
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Ashminigun wrote:
Meh. Those names suitable for naming your electronics and pets (I do named my computers =3). I would rather name my child something meaningful and traditional.


Thing is, people name people far worse for stupid reasons. I was looking up bad kid names & one story was the person (now adult) was named Pajama because the parent had seen it in a store catalogue & thought it was pretty.

I named my daughter after a character on Dark Shadows. She knows it & actually thinks it's a cool characters-strong female.
My cousin's wife named one of their kids after her dog.
Pretty much most of these names can be denied if the kid is so inclined as an adult. Not to mention, the parent doesn't have to say where the name came from.
Look at all the Twilight names that made the list last year. It's really rather common in the US for pop culture to invade baby naming.

My daughter named a cat Scruples because it was a spelling word the week she got the cat. Sora was named for Kingdom Hearts. Lupin was named for Harry Potter. Illyden got named for WoW & our latest cat got named Thor because we couldn't settle on a name so my daughter finally suggested Thor knowing I've always loved Thor (Marvel) & it matches our oldest cat Freya & is secrtetly calling him Uther after a WoW character.
There's also that-Initials, nicknames, etc.
I swear some parents hate their kids considering the names they stick them with. I can't recall the name, but I had a client with a name that suggested she was a good time in bed. I also had "Almighty" as a client.
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:32 pm Reply with quote
I can't actually think of any good anime names even hypothetically for my potential children. All my favorite characters either have slightly silly names (Spike, Jet, Guts, Vash, Alucard etc.) or Japanese names.

Unless of course I married a Japanese girl. Then it would seem justified to go with either Akira if it's a boy or Motoko if it's a girl (at least for middle names).
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:06 pm Reply with quote
ikillchicken wrote:
I can't actually think of any good anime names even hypothetically for my potential children. All my favorite characters either have slightly silly names (Spike, Jet, Guts, Vash, Alucard etc.) or Japanese names.

Unless of course I married a Japanese girl. Then it would seem justified to go with either Akira if it's a boy or Motoko if it's a girl (at least for middle names).


Vash is a real name though! Not a *common* one, but a real one. Apparently in 2009, 24 babies in every 1 million born in America were named Vash ^^; The site I looked it up on for that info had comments all relating to Trigun, though (and I'm sure now that Hetalia is so popular there will be a few more because of Switzerland); but the baby name book I've had for ten years or so has Vash in it, as an alternate for "Vachel" (French, "to raise cattle"... hm).
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:47 pm Reply with quote
Eh, those are mostly normal names, at least in Japan. I'm not surprised to see Cloud on there, but kind of relived about Light. For both names, even most people in the English-speaking world won't name their kids those. In Japan...It'd be like the one kid whose parents were all obsessed fanatics "Look! Our kid has an English name! Yar!"

I consider Rain a good name, though more for a male. I'm fine with rare names like Yale, Valon, or Rune, but some names are just way out there and sound terrible. Renesmee? Why would parents even think that's a good name. It's not even a real name, just a portmanteau of two names created for a devil-baby. Spike...I could see it, but I'd forever think of Rugrats.

Saturn wrote:

Vash is a real name though! Not a *common* one, but a real one. Apparently in 2009, 24 babies in every 1 million born in America were named Vash ^^; The site I looked it up on for that info had comments all relating to Trigun, though (and I'm sure now that Hetalia is so popular there will be a few more because of Switzerland); but the baby name book I've had for ten years or so has Vash in it, as an alternate for "Vachel" (French, "to raise cattle"... hm).

I hope people don't name a kid Vash because of Hetalia...Seriously, I'm almost positive it's Basch. The kana reads Basshu. Even with Vash from Trigun, the kana reads Vasshu. In German, a "v" doesn't make a "b" sound, but more like an "f". "Vash" would sound like "Fahsh." Either Himaruya screwed up, or a few translators didn't know the rules of pronunciation and went with the common "b=v (sometimes)" Romanization. I'm personally guessing it's the latter.
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